1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless devices and, more particularly, to efficient processing of incoming data streams.
2. Related Art
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Communication systems generally can support wireless and/or wired communications between communication devices (e.g., wireless or wired communication devices) operating within a respective system. Typically, a wireless network such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) includes an access point to communicate with at least one client station such as a wireless communication device (e.g., a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, a laptop, a personal computer (PC), a printer, a digital camera, or Internet protocol (IP) phone, etc.). The access point periodically broadcasts messages (e.g., “beacons”) comprising information describing the access point including recognition data such as a service set identifier (SSID). Generally, beacons are formatted and transmitted as broadcast packets. The SSID represents a code that identifies a broadcast packet as being within the network (i.e., a message transmitted between points within a given network). The client station identifies broadcast packets intended for its use based on the SSID and typically disregards broadcast packets lacking the correct SSID.
Furthermore, client stations utilize recognition data to identify, select, and/or otherwise recognize various access points operating within a given wireless network. Each wireless network device (i.e., access point or client station) within the wireless network shares the same SSID. Additionally, client stations may search for access stations within the wireless network by broadcasting probe frames to the various access points and in response receive probe responses that include recognition data transmitted from the access points.
Typically, a client station processes an entire beacon or probe response in order to identify and/or select an access point for communication. The client station compares the incoming frame to a frame stored in memory. The stored frame often requires a signification amount of memory for storage. Additionally, a processing unit of the client station is required to process the entire incoming stream. As a result, performance of the client station fails to reach optimal levels.